✦ A Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 event in Sydney, Australia

Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 @ UTS

QuantumGame Jam

One day. Zero quantum experience required. Learn what a qubit is before lunch, ship a quantum game before dinner, and watch strangers play it after.

📅 Wed 7 Oct 2026 ⏰ 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM 📍 The Clubhouse · CB01.03.29, UTS 🎟 Free for Quantum@UTS + ProgSoc members 🏆 $300 prize pool

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Register at ActivateUTS ↗ See the schedule Join our Discord ↗
Hosted by Quantum@UTS × ProgSoc, the UTS Programmers' Society

What even is this

A quantum hackathon
that fits in one day.

Qiskit Fall Fest is a worldwide series of student-run quantum computing events supported by IBM Quantum. Ours is a game jam: a crash course in the morning, a build sprint in the afternoon, and a room full of people playing your game at night. If you can write a Python for loop, you are qualified. If you can't yet, we'll send you a short notebook so you can be.

01 · 9:45 AM
🧠

Learn

Qubits, superposition, entanglement, and the five lines of Qiskit that make them go, taught by Astri Cornish from IBM Quantum. Delivered before your coffee wears off.

02 · 1:15 PM
🛠️

Build

Team up, pick a mechanic, and wire a real quantum circuit into a playable game. Bugs are features if they're probabilistic.

03 · 6:15 PM
🎮

Play

Demo to the room, play everyone else's game, let the judges deliberate, collect prizes, go home slightly changed.

The jam

The brief

Make a game where quantum does something. Any language, any engine, any level of polish. Somewhere inside it, a Qiskit circuit has to matter.

You'll get the full rules at the 12:00 PM briefing. Until then, here are some perfectly legal seeds to steal:

Coin flip, but the coin is a Hadamard gate Tic-tac-toe where your move is in superposition Two-player dice, entangled across laptops A dungeon map that collapses when you look at it Rock, paper, scissors, Pauli-X Snake, but the apple is a probability cloud Blackjack against a noisy simulator

What the judges are looking for

FunDid people want a second go?
Quantum-nessIs the circuit doing real work, or decorating?
UnderstandingCan the team explain the quantum concept behind their game, not just run it?
The demoThree minutes. Make them count.

A$300

Prize pool

Three hundred dollars, up for grabs.

Split across the winning teams and handed out at the awards. Judged on the four things above — by humans, in the room, right after they've played your game. The exact split lands at the hackathon briefing.

Schedule · Wednesday 7 October 2026

From "what's a qubit?"
to a working game.

☀️ Morning

Check in opensDoors open. Grab a name tag. Say hi to someone.
Opening ceremonyShort. We promise.
Quantum Computing & Qiskit 101 TalkWith Astri Cornish from IBM Quantum. Zero to your first circuit on a real toolkit. No maths degree required.
Hackathon briefingThe theme, the rules, the submission form.
Team formationNo team? We'll match you. Solo is allowed too.

🌤️ Afternoon

LunchFuel up.
Hackathon beginsNearly five hours of building. Mentors floating around the whole time.

🌙 Evening

DinnerStep away from the keyboard.
Submissions closeHard deadline. Very classical.
Team demosShow the room what you made.
Play & judgingEveryone plays everything. The judges decide.
Awards & group photoThe $300 changes hands. Smile like you understood entanglement.
CloseGo home. Sleep. Dream in Bloch spheres.

Who can come

Members go free.
Everyone else, be quick.

Members of Quantum@UTS or ProgSoc come free. One club is enough, both is fine, and joining either takes about two minutes on ActivateUTS.

Not in a club and not planning to be? We're holding a small number of general public tickets for a modest fee. There aren't many.

Registration is open on ActivateUTS now. Seats are limited either way and go first come, first served, so grab yours before someone else does.

Register at ActivateUTS ↗ Join our Discord ↗

📸 Photo release: we take photos and video at the event. By registering you agree that Quantum@UTS, ProgSoc, ActivateUTS and IBM Quantum may use them to promote this and future events. If you'd rather not be in them, tell us at check in and we'll keep you out of frame.

Join Quantum@UTSThe UTS Quantum Society. Talks, workshops, and this.
Join ProgSocThe UTS Programmers' Society. Code, coffee, questionable variable names.

Venue

Where it happens:
the Clubhouse.

One room, ours for the whole day, at UTS a few minutes' walk from Central. Doors open at 8:45 AM.

CB01.03.29

The Clubhouse — UTS Tower (Building 1), Level 3

15 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007

Resources

Homework,
but optional.

New to Python? Warm up before the day with our beginner Python notebook. Download it or open it straight in Colab, no install needed.

Get the notebook →

FAQ

Frequently asked,
honestly answered.

I know nothing about quantum computing. Is this really for me?

Yes, and specifically so. The morning session assumes zero background. If you know what a bit is, you're already ahead of the syllabus.

What is Qiskit?

Qiskit is IBM's open-source Python toolkit for writing quantum programs. If you can write basic Python, you can write a quantum circuit in about five lines.

If you can't write Python yet, or the words "linear algebra" make you nervous, we'll send registered attendees short notebooks covering the bare minimum of both before the event. Not a course, just enough to keep up. Bring questions.

Do I need a team?

No. Teams form at 12:15 PM on the day, and we'll match anyone who turns up without one.

Do I need to know maths or Python already?

No. Before the event we'll send out beginner notebooks on basic Python and the linear algebra basics behind qubits (vectors, matrices, and why a gate is just a matrix). Work through them at your own pace and you'll walk in ready for the 9:45 AM session.

Grab the Python notebook on the Resources page →

What do I need to bring?

A laptop, a charger and a water bottle. That's the whole list. We'll supply the qubits (simulated, mostly).

Is water provided?

Please bring your own bottle. There are bubblers and bottle filling stations dotted around campus, so you can top up for free as many times as you like during the day.

I'm not a member of Quantum@UTS or ProgSoc. Can I come?

Yes. The easy route is to join either club: it takes about two minutes on ActivateUTS and gets you in free.

If you'd rather not join, there are a small number of general public tickets available for a modest fee. There are only a few, so don't sit on it.

What does it cost?

Nothing, if you're a member of Quantum@UTS or ProgSoc. General public tickets carry a small fee and are limited in number — you'll see the details on ActivateUTS.

Will there be prizes?

Yes — there's a $300 prize pool, split across the winning teams. We'll confirm the exact split at the hackathon briefing. There are stickers too, obviously.

Where exactly at UTS?

The Clubhouse, room CB01.03.29, UTS Tower (Building 1), Level 3, 15 Broadway Ultimo NSW 2000.

Still not sure?

Ask us anything, however basic. Hop into our Discord and one of the organisers will get back to you.

Join the Discord server ↗

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